


Icy Armour

by Winter_Poppy



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: F/F, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 07:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3372542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winter_Poppy/pseuds/Winter_Poppy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"You will…protect me from myself?"</i><br/>Ice Knight meets Fire Doll.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Icy Armour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rynling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rynling/gifts).



> For the 2015 Kiss Battle. 
> 
> Thanks to my beta 0oMooncalfo0 for the quick check. All remaining mistakes are my own.

The first time Professor Cid took her before the emperor's presence, the girl was sitting on a cushion at the foot of the throne. She was cradling a porcelain doll. The doll's outfit was made of silk as fine as the girl's own dress, its ringlets (much like the girl's, tied up in pink satin ribbons) poured in layers over the puddle of her owner's skirts. On closer inspection, Celes noted the singed marks on the porcelain scalp, the scorched threads curling around the carefully stitched hairline. The girl born with magic, Celes thought, gulping as the girl looked up to meet her stare.

Cid had to repeat his call, she hoped, only once when her tutor's elbow prodded not-so-gently into her rib. Celes dropped to her knees, the buckles of her military issue boots biting into the thick purple carpeting. Her ears strained to take in the emperor's blessing, but her eyes kept straying towards the girl, her mind buzzing.

 

* * *

 

The second time she saw the girl, Celes was propped against a wall at the Magitek Research Facility, nursing a recently-jabbed arm. A little curly hair popped out of the corner on the farthest end of the wall. All the way towards Celes, curious green eyes blinked and widened and focused. Celes harrumphed, not in the mood for being the subject of someone's close examination. (She'd had enough of it during the tests and trials they had mounted up around the date of her infusion.) She snapped her head back, her breath bursting into a sigh as her gaze trailed a line of light bulbs along the ceiling. Why the other girl chose to interpret her gesture as an invitation to approach, Celes could not tell for sure. Her small frame was, indeed, growing bigger and clearer. Celes blinked back shapes of colour dancing across her field of vision. The bright sparks settled on the smaller girl's eyes.

The girl born with magic stopped mere inches before Celes, her little hands spread at the sides of her body. She was probably a full foot shorter than Celes, considering the latter's iron-shod boots against the smaller girl's velvety sleepers.

Well, what was she supposed to say now? Celes pondered, as the girl stared noiselessly at her favoured arm. She found herself staring in return, her gaze taking a reluctant detour around the other girl. She was delicate and petite where Celes was tough-built and square-shouldered. Soft round cheeks, the ethereal pale of jasmine petals. Almond-shaped eyes and rosy lips. Her face was framed by a halo of blonde ringlets, as thick and yellow as a golden chain. Surely a finger would fit inside one of those gold cylinders, Celes thought, almost tempted to try. Suddenly her left hand wasn't coiled around her smarting right arm anymore, but reaching out.

The other girl was faster, her curious index poking into the wet spots of Celes' bandage. 

Celes sucked in a breath, her teeth gritted. "What do you think you're doing!?" she snapped.  

"Are you hurting?" The other girl smiled, her lips opening and closing around the syllables of some quiet melody. "Still hurting?"

"No…" Celes said faintly. So the rush of warmth she'd just felt prickling through her arm hadn't been her imagination. She could almost swear she saw a dim glow lighting up the girl's fey features as her fingers trailed feather-light across Celes' aching skin. She scratched the wound, feeling numb, shaken, relieved. "Um. Thank you."

The smaller girl shrugged. Celes watched her spin on her sleepers and disappear at the same spot she had come to be.

 

* * *

 

The third time they didn't cross paths by chance. The wing of the Imperial Palace where the girl had her residence had recently caught fire, and was to be temporarily evacuated. A gas leak, to be sure. Celes almost smiled as she spotted the ghostly silhouette of the girl gliding about the hallway. Celes had been assigned to keep an eye on her in the meantime, as the girl's belongings were transferred to a safer part of the stronghold. Their gazes crossed paths, blinked, merged into each other.  

"An unfortunate accident, I take it?"

The girl born with magic looked down, her smile apologetic. "Sometimes it gets out of control. They said no one got hurt."

Celes frowned. The girl was wearing a somewhat prettified version of the Magitek Corps' uniform: pink and frilly and fancy when it was supposed to be drab and awe-inspiring. She looked far too harmless, as small and girlish as she was, to pose such an immediate threat to the safety of the whole palace citizenry. Perhaps that was the intended effect. Crammed into her steel-clad uniform, clanking menacingly at every footstep, the hilts of twin massive swords visible beneath her cloak, no one would think twice about messing with Celes. She was tall for her age, tall for a girl, as tough as any of the guys. She kept her budding breasts well-concealed under chainmail; she never let her hair grow an inch too long, and kept it pulled back into the tight regulation queue of her officer's rank. No jewellery, no makeup, no feminine diversion: she was the very picture of a proper Imperial Soldier. This girl, however, invited treason and mischief: a sure-fire way of unmasking potential threats. Perhaps that was why the emperor kept her close at hand, disguised as a human-sized doll.

"Sooo." The girl snapped her fingers. Like she had just struck a match, all of Celes' senses jolted to alert, her stance tensing up. But the girl born with magic was smiling coyly. Her arms nestled behind her back as she swayed lightly on her heeled little boots. "You're escorting me to my new chambers?"

"To be sure," Celes said. "About time to get going."

She gestured for the girl to move along, choosing to keep an eye from behind. There was a sort of coltishness to the girl, a tilting cadence to her measured gait, a spark of childhood in her bright eyes and smile.

"Where am I going to live now?" She peered at Celes above a pink epaulette trimmed with lace. "Did they tell you?"

"Next to my chambers," Celes replied. "You know why?"

"You can use magic too," the girl replied without a hint of insecurity.

"Exactly that."

"Ice?"

Celes made a humming noise in assent.

"You're the icy type, aren't you?"

When Celes didn't reply, the girl giggled. "They told you to keep me at bay, didn't they?

"I'm here to protect you."

"Protect _me_?" The girl sounded amused. "At any rate, seems the only protection I need is from myself." 

"Consider that my job, then."

The girl born with magic stopped dead on her tracks. "You will…protect me from myself?" The girl pivoted on her heels, forcing Celes to a sudden halt as her doll-like curls loomed closer to her flushed face. "Thank you."

Then she jerked up on her heels, high enough to reach Celes' face. The girl's lips bumped on the corner of Celes' mouth before she fell back on the balls of her feet, balancing herself to steadiness.

"What's wrong with you?" Celes flinched backwards, rubbing at the spot. Starting from her lips, her face was growing all hot and tingly. "I'm a girl, you know."

"I know." The girl smiled. "Girls can be knights too, can't they?"

"O-of course."

"Will you be my knight?"

" _Your_ knight?" That sounded weird but…somehow felt right too.

"My knight in icy armour." The girl laughed. It wasn't mocking.

Celes caught herself gazing into Terra's guiltless eyes, surprised at her own warm smile.

Let's trust my armour won't melt as easy, she hoped, nodding.  

 


End file.
